The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 4 - Chapter 65 - Memories (Patreon)

It's time for answers.

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                                                                                                Wolf
                                                                     Three days later on the 138th floor

“Alriiiight,” I mutter out loud in a slow, drawn out manner. “I have no idea who thought of this special floor, but I hate you.”

I see Sapphire nodding her head out of the corner of my eye as we stand on a giant floating platform looking out over... whatever it is we’re looking out over. At first glance, it looks just like a regular ocean of water. But when I turn my head ever so slightly, the water shimmers with flashes of images. Images of my past.

After staring at the ocean of illusions for a few more seconds, I focus on the notification that had appeared once we entered the floor.

Administrator Dungeon Notification

You have entered an Illusion Maze floor!

In order to leave this floor and move on to the next one, you must reach   the other side of the maze!
 And within this maze are three different illusion oceans that you must make   your way through to the end!

There are two different types of illusion oceans in this maze.
 There are the trickery illusions that will try to trick you in any way possible.

Then there are the past illusions that show a traumatic memory from your   past, and the only way to pass the illusion is to watch it in its entirety   without interfering with events. Because if you do, then you’ll have to watch   through a different illusion instead.

Additionally, soul-bound companions will automatically be teleported to   the other end of each illusion as they are banned from participating.

And unlike the other floors of the dungeon, all illusion maze floors are   instanced, making it so that no two Competitors may meet within the floor.

Additionally, Competitors may not leave their instance or enter other   Competitor’s instances.

I turn my head to look at Sapphire before muttering, “You think this counts as a violation of privacy too, don’t you?”

She just nods her head again and grabs onto my sleeve while watching the images flashing by down below. The very images I’m trying quite hard to ignore.

Whoever decided that having a mental illusion floor which seems to play back traumatic memories on a livestreamed dungeon crawl where millions of people are watching should be flogged. Because where the fuck is the privacy in that? Not only do I have to relive the shitty memories, but I have to do it with people watching me?!

That’s just fucked up.

I grit my teeth for several seconds before eventually jumping off of the platform into the ocean, following which reality itself around me begins to swirl and distort. Then everything goes dark.

Time passes in eternal silence for who knows how long until I find myself suddenly standing in a hospital. One that I remember very clearly.

I can’t help but feel my hand begin to shake a little as I watch the people – both doctors, nurses, and patients – rushing down the halls this way and that, all in a hurry to get wherever there going for one reason or another.

No. Please no.

Suddenly, two stretchers both pulled by a group of people each, with two doctors alongside them rush past me.

Stretchers with mom and dad on them, each pale faced and bleeding.

Mom has a massive sword wound bleeding from her gut along with various other sword wounds on her left leg, whereas dad has a bullet wound on his shoulder.

I hurriedly try to close my eyes, but the illusion doesn’t disappear even after I do so. So I instead try to turn around to stop watching, but I just find myself staring at them again – as if the illusion is purposely forcing me to watch.

“Hurry up! We need to get the bullet out right away!” One of the doctors shouts at the same time as the other says, “Bring us to the emergency room! And continue putting pressure on the gut wound!”

Tears begin to flow unbidden down my face while the two stretchers continue getting pulled through the hospital halls with everyone getting out of the way before they head straight into the emergency room one after the other. Then time begins to pass, and I manage to calm down again, just to see the younger versions of myself and Kate rushing down the hall and getting directed by a nurse with tears flowing down Katie’s eyes.

I on the other hand am keeping my own in in an attempt to look strong for Katie, whose hand is gripping my own as if letting go would mean our parents would die.

My jaw clenches as I watch our past selves.

Back then, I had medium length brown hair reaching down to my shoulders, whereas Katie had a dirty blond. We both had our parents’ blue eyes and were even wearing matching wolf shirts for a reason that I can’t remember. But whereas our shirts match, everything else couldn’t be any more different about our outfits. While my past self is wearing a light black jacket with black pants, she is wearing a red skirt with a pink jacket over the shirt we’re both wearing.

Unlike regular kids, even though Katie is crying her heart out, she’s not making a single sound. The tears just flow down her eyes, down her cheek, and off onto her jacket until my younger self wipes them off with my jacket sleeve.

Time passes slowly, and I’m forced to wait with them for the heart wrenching news that I know will be coming. Eventually though, the light above the emergency room goes dim, followed by the doctor leaving the room while wiping his brows of sweat. He then notices my and Katie’s younger selves and looks at a clipboard that I notice has our pictures before walking up to us and kneeling down.

“You’re parents will live,” he says, starting with the good news and bringing up our spirits, just to crash them again as he reluctantly adds, “but your mother may never be able to walk again.”

From my place unwillingly standing next to my past self, I see the hand of mine not holding Katie’s tightening into a fist with so much force that my nails – which I often didn’t bother trimming until I absolutely had to back them – end up breaking my skin and making small cuts on my palm. Meanwhile Katie finally starts crying out loud instead of the silent one she was doing earlier.

I can’t help but look at the emergency doors, wondering what would’ve happened if I had somehow tried to stop mom and dad from going on that job.

Would mom still have changed how she did? Would mom and dad have stopped talking as openly as they had? How would the Initialization have gone if I had stopped them? Better? Worse?

Suddenly, the scene around me changes and I find myself gasping for breath on another platform next to Sapphire, floating above a different illusion ocean this time.

Sapphire immediately rushes over to me and hugs me the moment she senses my emotions and sees the tears in my eyes. Tears that only get worse as I see the scene that changed everything.

One from six years ago, when mom’s legs were healed at the cost of her memories of us. Of her family.

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